TV Productionby ANshumaan Tyagi

INTRODUCTION

At the first glance I was quiete astonished by what this unit demanded. With my little experience in Media, I thought I was not ready to progress into this unit. Also, the fear of this unit being 15 % of your mark really scared me. There were 4 criteria that were suppose to be fulfilled.Even though, criteria A and B looked rather comforting , Criteria C and D confused me a little. However, the mistake I did was I never talked about this confusion with Mr Williamson, he would have helped and would have done even better in the future.

My Notes: Theories

This unit consisted of many important theories; So, detailed notes was the key to being successful in this unit. We learned many theories about the media around us and how many generations have gone through the media and affected it in the progress. One of the main theories discussed in our unit was Gratification Theory. the gratification theory states that we need media and media have not much influence on us, it contradicts the magic bullet theory. I usually try organising my notes for every topic by using the outlining tool and it helps quite a lot to look back whenever I want to see my notes. I am quite proud of my notes and it's organisation as I was easily able to refer to them through my analysis of a T.V show and a make.

Analysis on Sherlock

Sherlock is a contemporary version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective stories.The T.V show is created by BBC and is directed by two of the boon’s in Television industries:Benjamin Caron and Paul McGuigan This T.V show is a crime drama based TV show, which consists of on eccentric and ingenious Holmes;Who is a consulting detective for the absent-minded Scotland yard.Sherlock Holmes with his roommate;John watson, he has just returned from afghanistan and served there as a war veteran. This inexplicable team solves baffling crimes and mysteries with help of Sherlock “deduction “ skills. The T.V show is known for its peculiar case and their distinctively confusing solutions given by Mr Holmes and his pal Watson. The T.V show makes long-extensive episodes;However, makes only 3 episodes in a season.With every season coming out once a year.The T.V show is viewed by billions of viewers because of it’s extensive wait.

Analysis Continued

Sherlock has been an all time favorite.Its new season scored a most of 8.1 million viewers. According to PopMatters, Sherlock has been viewed by many youths from 10-20, and also many more adults in 20s watch Sherlock. Different generations have experienced many types and forms of media. From Radio to satellite T.V the new form of media has given generations options of entertainment. However, why do many 10-20 years old like a crime-drama T.V show? This answer to this question relates to the gratification theory. Many 10-20 years old find Sherlock entertaining because of its “God-man” aspect; Buzzfeed quotes Sherlock as “GOD MAN”; Thus, Proving my statement. As Sherlock Holmes(Benedict Cumberbatch) acts like a living life superhero, who can solve the most eccentric crimes in little amounts of time.This idea fulfills the Diversion needs of the audience.However, we could argue that it might also be not good for entertaining with the help of dramatically long drasticallly sad cases in the history because sometime this affects a person concious mind and makes him realise that the worls is filled wiht fear.As these crime dram shows try to convinve of thier reality by making the show so realistic that at one point our brains get confused between reality and a T.V show.Howver , at the end of the day we know it’s aT.V show but those repressed thoughts keep popoing up, this proves the mean world syndrome .A show like Sherlock inspires many youths to shadow the figure of the smart Sherlock and this mentality leaves an aroma of personal identity on the person doubting his self-esteem or just admires the actor and becomes a particular fan of the show Sherlock is a prodigy, who is portrayed to be a living google. In my opinion, just by following his style of language and the use of vocabulary can help many English students progress into their learning of English.Henry Jenkins mentions in one of his interest that students learn more after school than in school. He implies that students learn more by scrolling down Facebook or by spam facts on WhatsApp. He supports his participatory culture setting the that by we grab information by commenting and sharing it, not by reading books or watching documentaries.So, by posting facts or just watching Sherlock youth grab information, fulfilling surveillance needs. One of the needs from the gratification theory that shape Sherlock is Social Integration. With Hundreds of hashtags, fan pages, and social networking sites Sherlock easily advertises its episodes. We as multipliers than keep passing this information, therefore Sherlock attacks a way bigger market.Elaborating more won the fan base, every time sherlock's new episode comes a new fan base is formed to discuss what the event might mean, many fan bases consider the alternative ending, many fan bases look for the future scenarios that show might. However, How does this help the Sherlock production? Well, when the youth participate in this movement to make a change by answering a question or elaborating s point, He/she has just advertised Sherlock because of everytime some blog,fan page or just post on any social media, the people participate into this and get to know more and more about the show Sherlock.The statement above is the reason why youths have been finding this show is interesting, because of the constant talks of Sherlock.So just to be in those conversations and to be able to stick with “trend” youths get attracted to shows like Sherlock and just following this pattern every time Sherlock creators serve themselves with millions of followers and viewers.

Blue Peter Make

Analysis On Blue Peter

Blue Peter is a quite remarkable show for kids where adults from different famous shows come and in a way advertise their shows. In this process a host of the show talks with them about their shows and then teaches them to do something creative with just normal things in life such as Hoodie, toothbrush or a recycled can. In this particular Blue Peter, the host Lindsey Russell shows the Next Step dancer how to transform their hoodies into little bag packs. The next step dancers afterward try transforming one of the hoodies for themselves. This show targets audience from 6-12. As we know that channel fragmentation have increased choices for the IGEN generation.This might be related with Audience getting fragmented into different screens which were not available before; now a kid could be watching on his iPad, Dad could be watching T.V and other family members on many other digital screens, this evolution of media is known as the second screen.However, Blue Peter is quite successful in reaching to their audience by airing their show on UK's most beloved children T.V channel CBBC, at this point, Blue Peter receives 123,000 6-12 years old on CBBS; However, the show was not that famous when aired on BBC1.It is possible because there were more mature viewers on BBC 1; So, parents did not allow their kids or CBBS is just more popular in the UK than BBC1. CBBC also is able to provide episodes online for viewers who cannot attend them at specific times. This relates to how tV shows can now shift times and places, as the world is starting to become more competitive and busy.

CONTINUED

There were one presenter and three guests in the show. The guests were specifically invited from the next step. The next step guests were advertising their T.V show, and the presenter was trying to engage the audience of the show, through the cast of The Next Step.

The videos consist of 5 parts. The intro which introduces the make and then, the first part consisting of the introduction to the presenter and the cast and talking about something.This makes the audience clear about the guest and also advertises the guest show or product. Then the second part consists of the presenter trying to make the show interesting by using suspense or comedy such as “we’re going to create something and changing into something,” the use of the words attracts the viewers to watch the whole video. The second part is when she praises the show and try to advertise it. (0:34-1:13). The third part is making the hoodies; telling the ingredients, doing the challenge, etc.This is usually the part the children like to watch and try to do it with the presenter, hooking the audience in. The last part consists of the cast thanking the presenter and showing off the last product.At this point, the children compare their product to the presenters and try to comment on their product.

The Structure Of The Make

Continued

The Blue Peter usually makes no more than five mins. These makes have to be precise, as a lit bit of time or overtime would cost the no air or their footage would be cut. Even though, Blue Peter makes are recorded and then telecasted. They still need to be organized. For these reasons, they make their makes way ahead of time. The one that should telecast in 2 weeks will be done today for future planning. These makes require a lot of background set -up and compensate for the guests and the presenter. There is a lot of behind the scenes work put in by the directors, PA, and the floor manager. Floor manager directs the cast on the stage and the people on the camera about their roles in the production. The PA is usually the one who tries to fulfill everyone’s needs, and the director is responsible for the smooth transition of the shots. The PA is physically responsible for the transition using the tri-caster.All these features have one main issue to make the program flow smoothly. The show is trying to make at aesthetically pleasing to the targeted audiences by using background, costumes and the props. Their targeted audience is 6-12, the background is blue and consists of a lot of pipes, this makes the background look calm and pleasant, and also the pipes add the sci-fi look to the production. The costumes of the characters on the show are quite a descent, the ones you will wear casually. This conveys the casualty of Blue Peter towards their audiences. Also, the use of their badges carries markets their badges and increase their sales. As the follower of that specific guest would love to try one of those badges on. Hoodies are also quite remarkable clothing for tweens, and tween would love t show off their creativity by just normal clothing everyone's wearing. I think it’s important to show examples as visual give people a better understanding than small tiny words.

Continued

As I am doing TV unit, I will analyze the way they presented their show. Their background relates to one of those sci-fi movies with a strong blue light brightened by the spotlight on the host and next step dancer. The background also consists of two low-pitched lights. There was a lot of lighting in front to hide the blue spotlight leaving its light traces on the dancers or the host.So, I guess there were at least two big lights in front of them and many small lights to indicate that perfect brightness for the show. However, they could have just removed the blue light, but, then 6-12 years would not find the show interesting as the background is the one that keeps the show interesting and aesthetically pleasing. As in a normal T.V show, there were three cameras involved in this show. Camera one was fixated and constantly kept looking at the dancers, host, and table (the place where all the hoodies are kept). The use of camera 1 was definitely to keep fixated and keep focusing on the main characters and the production. Camera 2 the one on the right was there to concentrate on the host, If you see the T.V show properly we could easily see that in many shots the camera is close up to the host(1:59) or there is just a medium shot of the host （2:37）。In my opinion, this camera just had a little movement because sometimes it also forces on one of the dancers to the right and also, closes up when the host is making the hoodies. This camera must have been there to express the costs expression towards the progression of the shows and also, to clearly show the final product of the make. Cameras 3 was there to focus on the other two dancers; it was taking many close-ups and medium shots of the two dancers. This camera must have been there to keep the show interesting. In conclusion, the show's success depended on its way of presenting it to it's targeted audience's.

The show concentrates on making a Hoodie bag. As there are not a lot of ingredients required for this make, they just lay down on the table and introduce the ingredients while doing the show. Also, they put the list of their ingredients on their website situated in CBBC. Usually, the makes show their ingredients through special effects VT. The show represents themselves as Blue Peter by using logos, props, and speech. The logos presented in the intro by the VT gives us a glimpse of what might be coming on the television.As the blue peter sign is the blue ship with words Blue Peter written above it. The ship clearly represents their targeted audiences as that what six years old find interacting. The use their logos for marketing such as put them on badges shirts or any other day to things children use. By making the guests wear the badges, they make these badges more popular, and the market for the badges rises. Also, by saying things like Bleu Peter challenge, they follow a trend kids might like to see. These logos then hep them to communicate with social media. They have fan pages and # like # Blue Peter Challenge where people comment about how this challenge went or vote who might win the challenge.

Camera Shots

The Make

Our make was about creating stylish paper art through bubbles.

Why did we choose this question?

We chose this question because many teen have low -paid pocket money. And then, always wish to give something big to their relatives or family. This idea of producing an award winning product by just using materials at home is a game changer for those sitting at home wondering what to do.

Pre - Production Planning (For Group and my role)

Job Letter

When I first realised that we actually have to apply for a job and we get it through our skills not by teachers recommendation. I was delighted by the fact that I can work whoever I would not to be as , truly express myself. I was quite enthusiastic about the job of the vision mixer. I really liked the idea of learning to operate a sophisticated piece like tri-caster. I appreciated that the school thinks of our need and tries to provide them. Vision mixer I think is also an important role in the production as he organizes your videos and is the major one behind the scenes piecing the puzzle together. I thought my experience with Adobe premier pro and handling with images in Adobe illustrator would make me ready to take the job of vision mixer. Also,my camera handling would support my point.However, I think Mr Williamson did not think I was able to fulfil the requirements for this Job and made me a PA. At first I was unsure I was fit for PA because I believed PA (personal assistant) is very easy job and i wouldn’t be able to proof myself in this job. However, once I researched about my role I found out It was challenging as PA was responsible for t cutting if necessary to time and organising all the scenes. So, i was ready to accept my job.

Pre - Production Planning

The floor plan(Group Contribution)

The floor mager had created the positions of the camera at the scenes where camera were to changed or shots were to be shifted. These plans took care of the safety as he thought of taping the wires to the ground to prevent anyone falling. Also he assured that the camera are clearly able to hear the director and the PA and directed the cameraman and the presenter through the whole make.

Stage Set-up(Group Contribution)

As we only require a table , our technician ABBY made sure we were provided with the table. The lightings were also taken care by her. So we didn’t have any contributions to the lighting plan. We strategically put our final product under the table so the presenter can easily show the final product.

Ingredients(Group Contribution)

The make required a lot of ingredients(paper,paint,bowl and spoon ) and this was taken by Sophie as she brought the cups and the soap and we got the paper form the art department. We required abundant ingredient as it was needed for rehearsals and the final product.

The creation of VT(My contribution)

I was the on the created the Vt using the skills I acquired from the Premire Pro usage in the horror unit. I used the video given on youtube and tried to add more color and saturation to make more appealing to audience. I also tried to get our logo pasted in the VT;However, this was way above my ability to work on Premiere pro. The VT was our transition so it was not suppose to be long and had to be related to the topic. I first thought of using bubbles sound and just some bubbles blowing .However, this was not that appealing to our color bubbles .So , I sticked with DIY cour bubbles video and credited them at the end. I also was responsible for the cred s at the end of the video.

Communication Between the crew(My contribution)

I also gave an idea to communicate with the crew through facebook messenger as it a widely accepted messenger through teens. We voted about the make and also talked about the make itself.We reflected on the make through the messenger and also talked about our journals on it.

Script(Director's Contribution)

The script was rather different from the horror unit we did. The horror unit consisted of just the script and the camera shot were to be decided by the cameraman. However, in this make the shots were decided by the director and were added to the script. The script had to be short because of the time limit.However, if the script was too short, there would be nothing on the screen. For this reason the script was to be no more than a page. Also, we had to add when the VT or the special effect were to be added with time of the creds and the introduction. Just to be accurate with script we timed the presenter (Which was my idea).

Our Script (edited by Abby)

My role

As a PA was responsible to help the needs of the make. We were informed that we are only having 2 hours to rehearse and shoot this make. This was quite worrying for me as a first timer in doing my job.I was instructed that I am suppose to take care of time and also inform the crew of what stage we were in the script.Firstly, I started to gather knowledge about the communication on the set. We were using microphones to communicate with the people outside . Every cameraman and the floor manager had their own communication;So, I was relieved I would have no problem communicating with the cast. In the studio room we had one microphone that was being shared between me and the director. The director instructed about the camera shot and also saw the Vision mixers screen for any edits. I used to call out the shot and instructed the floor manager to move the camera man 1,2 and 3 to their positions for the next shot. As we can see in the video below. I am calling shots and Director is repeating after me to assure the vision mixer and myself that were doing thing fine. We all had a copy of scripts for anytime were required to change the script the whole make had to be stopped and everyone was to make that change because the final product had to smooth. I was also required to listen to complaints made by the crew and discuss them with the director to be solved. As in the middle of the play Camera Three had doubts about the shot . I conveyed the message to the director and we modified that shot by putting in Cam 2. After one hour of learning our roles and another 45 mins of rehearsal we tried to make final make in the last 15 mins. Even though we finished before time II was not satisfied with the product.

Weaknesses

I was quite slow in grabbing my role. Every time I mess up the script number I would stop the whole make, making the rehearsal impossible to be completed. This was happening because I was not sure until I entered the studio about the roles I was to perform physically in this make.For Next Time I can be more prepared for my role by researching more about my role and looking at real life examples of Behind the scenes of other makes.

I was also unsure of the timing of each shot. Every time the presenter used to change it’s speed, So, I was unsure when to say the next scene. This was confusing to the floor manager and he was not able to accurately tell the cameraman to move to position. Also. my mislead of command made the vision mixer think w were starting, So, she started recording 10 seconds before we put the intro, this made the whole crew confused. I guess I needed more practice with my role.

Also, there were times when the presenter was supposed to perform and again he uses to change the timing of performing this action. This made really hard for me and the director to predict when the next camera should be on. I should have stepped up and asked the presenter to time himself doing this action and I would have driven the production smoothly.

Accomplishments

I was quite proud of How I was able to adapt to my role in such short times and be a little bit successful with it.

I was also proud of my contributions to crew by creating a Vt and working with presenter to adjust his tones.

I was so proud of me being an important part of the production as i informed everyone of the scene or part of the script we were currently at.

Our Group's Strengths and Weaknesses

Weaknesses

Our lack of communication between each other could be seen in the beginning of the make when we have 10 seconds of black screen. In a real production the T.V channel would have been really angry for black screen and also would have cost the decrease in our audience as they would have assumed that the show was not coming that day.We also lacked coordination between the studio and the stage as at the end the camera is a little bit wonky stating that the camera a was unaware that He/She is being recorded.

Also, our lack of ingredients was easy to be seen in the make. The presenter was unable to grab the paint through the spoon. So, he used the back of the spoon. This incidence cost our time and the whole crew was confused about our situation in the script.

Also, because we did not plan our background music beforehand, there was no music in our make making the make less interesting and appealing to our target audiences the Teens.

Also, our presenter was not able to successfully transit between ideas of his/her production making our product irrelevant and less appealing to the audiences.

Strengths

In my opinion, every crew member tried his/her best to make this make successful. The crew adapted to their roles quickly. They tried to add more and more ideas to make this make smoothly and on time. We had a lot of contribution from every crew member to make this happen.Like the ideas for make and how to counter problems in our way.

Also, I like how we at least had product in the end. I know it had some ups and down but the final product was pleasing considering all the planning and hard work we out in the product.

Also, that we finished before time and proved that we were working efficiently as a team.

Our Mistakes

Conclusion

I enjoyed doing this unit with my excellent crew. This unit was filled with a lot of theoretical work and also practical that embarked a new understand in my mind. The use of these theories and understanding of these roles would help ahead in my future. I acquired much skill set this unit such as organization and planning. These are crucial for any subject and any work we do in the school. This unit has also given my an opportunity to experience in a real life T.V production and also helped me acquire the information about many roles.